


A Fishy Smell

by ooopo123



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Animal Death, Animal Sacrifice, Dead fish - Freeform, Every Uterus Possessing Person's Dream to Magically Stop Their Periods Come True, Gen, Magic, Menstruation, Periods, Sacrifice, periods suck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-05-07 15:28:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19212277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ooopo123/pseuds/ooopo123
Summary: For this menstrual cessation to occur, you must collect:A Single CandleA Bleeding Tooth Fungus3 Venus Flytrap HeadsTwo Halves of a PomegranateA Sheaf of Dried Amaranth& a Small SacrificeHaley messes around with the forces that be in order to get rid of her period. Because who hasn't wanted to fling their uterus off of a cliff at some point in their life?





	A Fishy Smell

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Implied Periods and A Single Dead Fish

“Haley!”

Haley twirled around to face whoever was calling her name; she smiled brightly when she caught sight of the town’s resident farmer catching up to her. They only ever seemed to seek her out when they had something to give her, and the tattered flyer in their hand seemed to confirm that thought.

“I saw your request.” They handed over the paper in their hand; Haley immediately recognised it as the note she’d scrawled out in the middle of the night, possessed by a fit of desperation, a day or so ago. “And I hope you still want it, because I finally caught it!” Haley clapped in delight as the Farmer shrugged off their backpack to start rooting through it.

“Oh my God! Thank you so much!” She watched in hushed awe as they unearthed a long cardboard box from the bottom of their bag; miscellaneous items falling to the wayside as they did so. That awe quickly turned into vague disgust when they opened up the box to reveal a newspaper wrapped fish: The bream she’d requested. “Oh Yoba. That’s… Lovely?”

Thankfully, instead of seeming offended, the Farmer only laughed. They closed up the box, once again hiding the deceased fish from view; much to Haley’s relief.

“Yeah, I felt the same way the first time I saw a freshly dead fish too.” This time Haley joined in with the Farmer’s laughter; gingerly accepting the box after fishing out the amount she owed the other. The Farmer dipped their sun-hat, a gesture reminiscent of Pelican Town’s librarian, drawing another smile out of Haley. Who knew the Farmer was such a comedian? 

Maybe she should make it a point to go out of her way to talk to them more often? Haley turned the thought over as she said her goodbyes; making a bee-line for her house. Suspiciously moist box cardboard sagging under her grip.

-_-_-_-_-

“I’m baaack!” Haley called out, shouldering her way in through the front door; sincerely wishing she’d asked the Farmer if they could of carried the Bream home for her.

“Oh! Wonderful! How was your day Hal-!” Emily stopped talking partway through her sentence, instead sniffing the air deeply. “What is that _smell?_ ” She jumped as Haley kicked the door closed after herself.

“Fish.” Dumping the box on their kitchen table Haley hurried past her sister to the sink; washing her hands, even if she knew she’d be getting them nice and filthy again soon. Emily cracked open the flaps of the box, flinching when she came face to scaly face with the fish.

“Yes, well I can see that, Hales. But _why?_ ” Holding up a finger, Haley dried off her hands before balancing on her tiptoes to retrieve one of Emily’s cookbooks from above the fridge; it was only then that Emily realised she didn't actually recognise this book. When her sister showed off the crumbling cover she figured out why: because, it _wasn't_ one of her books. 

She didn’t know the book, or maybe she did? Sure, she had never actually _seen_ the book before, but in the back of her mind Emily remembered a conversation. It was possible she had been talking to Elliott at the time, and he’d been the one to tell her. He had heard from Leah, who in turn had heard it from Sam, who’d been told by Penny about something Maru had seen. The point was, that in this convoluted game of small town Chinese whispers, word of this particular book had survived mostly unharmed.

Maru and Shane had been hired by Gunther a while back; when he’d discovered literal bookworms, the variety that was neither Elliot nor Penny, in the library and as such was swift to up-heave the entire collection in hopes of eradicating them. It was during this neigh catastrophic time, catastrophic relative to the ‘nothing ever happens here’ town, that Maru had stumbled upon a less than ordinary book. It was a victim of the dreaded bookworms, and had been yellowing on its shelf for quite some time; when questioned Gunther had admitted he’d only bought the thing to placate Abigail’s desire for ‘darker’ reads to be available in the library.

And ‘dark’ seemed to sum up this particular tome quite nicely; as the book was anything but nice on the eyes. It was old, dusty and dirty. Pages were peeking out the bottom, threatening to fall out, and the cover was already half-gone. What was left of said cover had the title scrawled on it in faded ink, near illegible cursive spelling out _‘Grimoire of the Occult’_.

“What.” Emily pointed at her sister, then the book, blankly. “Is that.” Haley shot her a, completely understandable, judging look.

“It’s a spell book, _duh._ ” She flipped the thing open, letting the cover fall as it finally decided to detach itself after Yoba knows how long, and started leafing through the pages. Emily retrieved the discarded cover from the floor; pondering whether to give it back to Gunther or save the man the trouble and just throw it out.

“And what are you going to do with it, Hales? I thought witchcraft was more Abigail’s thing?” After saying all this, Emily immediately started to verbally backpedal. “Of course, I’d never judge you for taking up a new hobby! Witchcraft is a perfectly respectable pastime! Oh! Maybe you could even start talking with Abigail about it? You could use a new friend or two!” From her position of having her nose metaphorically buried in the grimoire (metaphorically only because the damn thing was dusty as heck) Haley rolled her eyes, finding the page of which she had been searching for.

“Nah. Witch girl can keep her title as town weirdo, I just need her freaky book for this.” ‘This’, Emily found when her sister showed the page to her, turned out to be some type of spell entitled ‘Menstrual Cessation’.

Upon reading that, Emily geared up to protest, but found herself with a face full of musty book instead.

“ _Haley!_ ” Ignoring her sister’s sputtering, Haley dug the fish from it’s cardboard coffin with surprising ease; a stark difference from her earlier gingerness. The wonders stubbornness can do for you. “Haley, I don’t think it’s wise to play around with this sort of thing!” She scanned over the spell requirements, “Oh goodness, this says it needs a sacrifice! Is this why you have the fish?” Understandably alarmed with her sister’s actions and intent, Emily watched as Haley retrieved various other items out from around the kitchen.

 _For this menstrual cessation to occur, you must collect:_  
_A Single Candle_  
_A Bleeding Tooth Fungus_  
_3 Venus Fly Trap Heads_  
_Two Halves of a Pomegranate_  
_A Sheaf of Dried Amaranth_  
_& a Small Sacrifice_

As Haley lined up her collection on their kitchen table, preparing for the spell, Emily started to wonder how she’d gotten any of these things; especially without her knowing! But such musings were tossed aside as Haley finished up lathering their cutting board in the slimy insides of pomegranates; switching to using her now very much lit candle to set fire to the amaranth.

“ _Oh Yoba! Haley! **No!**_ “ Alas, her words fell on deaf ears and the sheaf went up in flames. Haley dropped the purple grass onto the cutting board with a startled yelp, not at all expecting the speed with which the flames ate up their fuel. For a moment, the two sisters watched in dread and trepidation, waiting for the moment the flames jumped from plant to wood: but it never came.

No, instead the orange flames flickered, turning red then as purple as the amaranth; the smoke being produced deviating from its ceiling bound path to stretch towards the fungus and flytrap heads. Hastily, Haley gathered those items up, throwing them into the hungry maws of the flames.

With a blinding pop of colour, the flames began to dance; spiraling between purple, red, orange and green. Tendrils of sweltering technicoloured fire arched their way off of the burning collection of flora, heading towards the fish conveniently left out by Haley. Slowly, the visage of scaled amphibian disappeared, replaced by lights that looked less like fire now and more like miniature fireworks; until, as if the light switch for the entire production had been flicked off, everything in the magical display ceased to be. Leaving behind only two thoroughly bewildered sisters, a now skeletal fish, and a small crimson crystal.

Emily stared at the scene for a long while, then stared a few minutes longer. Haley, overcoming the shock, willed herself to move over to where the magic she’d conjured had been. Delicately, she fished the crystal out from behind the rib cage of the skeleton; holding it up to the light between her thumb and forefinger. It shone the same purple, red, orange and green as the flames had in the sun shine.

Then, with next to no ceremony, Haley plopped the gem into her mouth and swallowed hard. Emily’s disbelieving look deepened, now with concern about having to take her sister to Dr Harvey for swallowing a rock colouring it.

“I should of swallowed that with water.’ Cringing, Haley massaged her throat, coughing lightly. Big sister instincts kicking in, Emily rushed to grab her a glass of the liquid; which Haley took and downed gratefully. 

“Don’t worry, Em.” Haley soothed when she’d finished drinking; trying to act calm and collected even when her frazzled appearance did nothing to aid her cause. “The book said this would all happen and it did, so I guess it _must_ be safe too. Right?” Emily had her doubts, but didn’t voice them. If Haley felt at all ill in ways her period couldn’t explain? Then she’d force Haley over to the clinic herself.

No. Emily didn’t say anything as Haley left for her room, humming a happy tune under her breath. She didn’t say anything, even after she heard the quiet _‘click’_ of her bedroom door locking. And, still, she was silent as she slumped down in one of the kitchen table’s chairs; suddenly exhausted.

She only spoke after she’d called up her best friend, Sandy; wondering if she was open to a last minute visit from Emily.

**Author's Note:**

> The picture is of Haley's request for a bream: "FOR GIRLS ONLY: psst... I need a Bream... You know what it's for. Keep it secret, okay?"  
> It was said request that prompted me to write this fic. At first I was thinking along the lines of weird period cravings, and then I jumped onto the thought of her sacrificing the fish in order to stop her periods all together. Obvious logic on how I went from one thought to the other, I'm aware.


End file.
